Fishing the Internet offers many informational sites

Lahontan Valley News/Fallon Eagle Standard, Saturday, September 27, 2003

BY DEBBIE SHARP PRODUCTION

Click here to read about "Wes's Fishing Report"

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2-1-05

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.You Can Teach Someone To Fish…But Will It Be Legal?

I was thinking about that old saying, “Give someone a fish and they will be fed for a day, teach someone to fish and they will be fed for a lifetime.”

Then I started to laugh. Teaching someone to fish in this day and age is more complicated, with more risks of breaking the law than teaching someone to drive a motor vehicle and use a firearm…at the same time!

“What’s biting?” used to be the most common question asked when I answered the phone at the tackle shop.

But now, most often, “What’s legal?” is the first inquiry by would-be anglers.

So, what is for dinner from Shelter Cove in 2005?

Well, if you’re fishing with your feet on the ground or your entire body in the water, most rockfish are legal all year. (Including one bocaccio, one cabezon and one greenling but no canary, cowcod or yellow eyes.)

For those who fish from a boat, sport salmon season opens on Saturday, February 12th. When the season opens, the minimum size limit for king salmon will be twenty inches.

Last year the season opened with a twenty-four inch minimum, and then went to twenty inches in May. I don’t know if there is a mid-season change in the size limits this year.

There is still lots of bait in the area, including large schools of herring, mackerel and others.

While fishing for sand dabs a couple of weeks ago, I incidentally caught several mackerel and a small king salmon near the bottom, in the sand on bait jigs.

Besides salmon, boat anglers can catch sand dabs, a few assorted sole, starry flounder and California halibut.

Rock cod season opens July 1st for the north central region that includes Shelter Cove
and in the north region that includes Punta Gorda, Eureka and on to the Oregon border. The rock cod season will close December 1st for the north central and November 1st for the north region.

When rock cod season opens we will be allowed to catch two lingcod with a minimum size limit of twenty-four inches. Do you suppose that FingG actually listened to reason?

Pacific halibut season opens May 1st.

 

10-15-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

A Shelter Cove Trophy Is Gone

Dearly beloved, long time Shelter Cove resident Les Wandel passed away last Thursday October 14th.

While swimming to shore just behind his house with a limit of abalone, something went wrong in his body and Les yelled to his dive partner for help; but by then his passing was already written.

Les’s presence was such a pillar in the Shelter Cove and especially the sport fishing community that we are all shaken by his departure.

In it, on it or near it, the ocean was one of, if not the greatest passion in Les’s life.

Just a couple months ago, Les found the trophy abalone that he had dreamed of finding during so many years of looking. So proud to have finally broken the eleven-inch barrier, Les set out to establish a club of ab divers who had also crossed that magic threshold. The poor thing was several days old and had been frozen at least twice by the time I finally had a chance to take a picture of Les Wandel and the largest abalone of his life for the press release.

Yes, Les took his fishing very personal.

“I’m going to sell my house and move to the dessert”, Les yelled at me across the counter one morning just after Fish and Game had handed down yet another ridiculous restriction.

“I’m going to sell my boat and quit fishing”, was another one of his rants on the radio when people were catching fish around him and he wasn’t getting any.

And he loved the people of this ocean community. Willing to do anything or give to anyone who had need around him on land or sea, unable to sleep at night if he thought he had offended anyone, he truly loved this community.

He will be deeply missed by those of us on the sea. Regularly on the marine radio with a joke, a song or an inspiring imitation trumpet serenade, contact with fishing family was essential in his life and will now be a big hole in ours.

I love you Les


9-26-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

Rock Fish Open One More Month

In my last article I said that rockfish season closes on October 1st, but in fact it closes on November 1st.

Lots and lots of big lingcod are coming in. The charter boats are constantly bringing in limits of big lings along with limits of rock cod.

Last week, we thought Bob Atwell from Modesto, may have caught the largest lingcod of the year while fishing on the charter boat Bite Me.

Over four feet long and a bulging belly full of who knew what, the fish was very impressive. It tipped the scales to 41 pounds, making it the heaviest ling that I’ve seen all year.

A few folks standing around the scales speculated on the contents of the belly and joked about whether it should be counted in the fish’s weight.

“It’s eggs,” one angler guessed, looking at the huge bulge.

“It’s a couple of large rockfish,” I added to the suggestions.

The fish finally made it to the cleaning tables and as captain Slate began to cut the fish open, out popped two, three-pound sinkers that he had stuffed into the fish without anyone seeing.

Everyone had a good laugh at Bob’s expense, but he walked away with a nice thirty-five pound lingcod.

There are still salmon to be found near the cove.

Mid week there were about twenty commercial boats catching salmon just north of the cove and some sport boats were able catch fish around them when the salmon came up to depths they could reach.

As the week went on sport boats started catching quite a few salmon just outside the whistle in less than 120 feet of water.

9-19-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

Big Salmon Still At The Cove

There were several large salmon caught close to shore near Shelter Cove last week.

Baitfish continue to run in large numbers all around Point Delgada and into the cove it’s self. Then as the water temperatures near shore cooled last week, the salmon came in to feed.

Carlo Boncore noticed a school of bait in the harbor on his way out last week. He started trolling in thirty-five feet of water just outside of pilot rock at the entrance of the Cove and caught a twenty-four pound king salmon.

On Friday Sept. 10th Cal Gladded was fishing with long resident and contractor Steve Mobley when he hooked a very large salmon. They were fishing less than a mile from the cove, between the two buoys, using bait and a green hoochy when the monster hit.

After many heart pounding minutes Steve was able to help Cal land a forty-five pound salmon.

Not all of the salmon are large; in fact there seems to be an unusually large amount of young salmon around for this time of year. It’s typical to see lots of young salmon in the early parts of the season; hopefully their abundance now is a sign of healthy stocks in the next few years.

The commercial salmon boats are still catching fish in the deeper waters; sometimes a bunch and other times not so many but their size average is larger than the sport fish.

The charter boat Bite Me came to shore full of very satisfied customers last week. In spite choppy water in the afternoon, Captain Slate put them on limits of salmon and nearly limits of rock cod and lings.

Rockfish season for the central Ca. sector (including Shelter Cove) closes on Oct. 1st. I think it will remain open in the north sector through the end of the year except for the emergency closure on the abundant black rockfish. I have heard that there will be a closure of rockfish in the north sector for parts of next year.

I have also heard that we will have an additional two months of rockfish and lingcod season next year and the lingcod size limit may be reduced as well.

Salmon season closes on Nov. 14th this year and re-opens mid Feb. next year.

Crab season opens a little early this year because the last Sat. of Nov. is five days before Dec. 1st.

9-9-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

The Salmon Returned Labor Day Weekend

After several weeks of slow salmon fishing near shore at Shelter Cove, the bite went nearly wide-open during Labor Day weekend.

Captain Sam Stafslien on the charter boat Annika was one of the first to discover that salmon had schooled up just off the point at Shelter Cove. He was able to limit his crew with a dozen salmon on Sunday, and then did it again on Monday.

On Sunday and Monday 75% of those trying, caught their limit of salmon and most of those were caught between the point and the whistle buoy.

Many of the sport caught salmon were on the small side but there were several large fish mixed in.

On Sunday, Randy Forbes caught a thirty-pound salmon and Chet Edeline brought in two, ten-inch abalone on the same boat.

After the weekend, the wind picked up and the salmon became harder to fish for the sport boats. The commercial fleet grew larger daily as they continued to fish in the winds and the bite got better and better for them.

The commercial fish were a mixed grade but there were lots of salmon in the thirty-pound class.

California halibut continue to be caught near the Cove. Several came in last week and a few were in the twenty-pound class.

There is still a tremendous amount of bait near the cove and at times on the high tide the harbor is boiling with bait, birds and sea lions.

The warm water that holds the tuna has at this point, backed off shore and out of reach of the sport boats fishing out of Shelter Cove. The closest edge as I write, is seventy miles away from the cove. There is still time and a chance that the current could come within reach but it’s getting late.

9-2-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

More Lings Than Thought?

By the FingG emergency mid season tightening of the lingcod season and limit, I got the impression that there might be a severe shortage, but ever since the season opened August 1st, it’s been a non-stop lingcod fest at Shelter Cove.

Most angles are having no trouble catching their one female ling over thirty inches. Often, many lings under the thirty-inch limit are caught and returned in the process. Eight out of ten lings over thirty inches are mature females.

A full crew on the charter boat Bite Me was fishing just south of Punta Gorda last week and came back with ten huge lingcod. They caught over fifty lings in the process of catching limits of rockfish and legal size lings.

We had three straight days of tuna fishing last week, starting on Monday when at least a half dozen boats fished between twenty and thirty-five miles out of Shelter Cove. Tuesday, there was fourteen sport boats fishing tuna and back to six on Wednesday as the wind began to pick up.

The bite was a little scratchy at times, with boats reporting lots of single hook-ups, and then would break open for stretches with many four and five fish hook-ups. Boats were coming in with five to thirty-five large tuna over the three days.

The grade of the tuna has increased considerably since earlier this year. Lots of tuna over thirty pounds came in last week and the small ones were eight to ten pounds.

8-26-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

Trophy Abalone and Albacore At The Cove

There are not too many abalone divers that will pass up a ten-inch abalones in search of a lager one but Less Wandel has left several tens this year in search of trophy abs.

Last week, Less, a long time Shelter Cove resident, came across an abalone that he couldn’t pass up. Diving from a boat out of Shelter Cove, he found an abalone that was just over 11 1/8 inches long and over 9 ¼ inches wide, weighing 12 ½ lbs.

The albacore finally moved in a little closer to the Cove last week. On Wednesday, half a dozen sport boats ran for albacore out of Shelter Cove.

All the boats came back with between five and twenty tuna up to twenty-five pounds.

The albacore were caught as close as twenty-two miles, in 56 degree water and out to thirty-five miles in 64 degree water, a little southwest of the cove.

It was a scratch bite for most of the day, most anglers picking up a fish here and there. Then in the afternoon the fleet got into a fairly large school and some boats were catching four and five tuna at a time.

Shasta Kirsh was the first to find the major body of fish and let the fleet in on his location. He ended up most of nineteen tuna. I say most of, because twice, while trying to bring in a tuna, a shark came up and bit the tuna off just below the shoulders.

One of the relatively few salmon caught last week was also bit off. Right beside the boat, in one bite a large shark took most of a salmon that looked to be about fourteen pounds.

 

8-19-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

More Halibut and Tuna At The Cove

California halibut are still coming in daily at Shelter Cove

Last week Tim Riley, who is often a successful halibut angler, took his brother Don out to work the sandy spots near shore below the Cove, for the treasured flat fish.

Before long they had two nice California halibut. Tim caught a twelve pounder and Don caught a twenty-pound California in less than twenty feet of water.

Last week the Annika charter boat took a group north to Punta Gorda for a deluxe combo trip. The crew came home with limits of rockfish, limits of lingcod, eight salmon and a forty-pound Pacific halibut.

That same day, two boats out of Shelter Cove were able to reach albacore. I was out in my twenty-foot boat the Tortuga Grande, accompanied by a twenty-three foot Striper with a three-man crew.

To reach the closest thermal edge that holds the tuna, we had to travel most of the forty-five miles straight into a three to five foot chop, which was about six feet apart. It took me three hours to reach the edge.

Once there, it was obvious. The water temperature went from 54 degrees to 61 degrees in the span of about one mile. The water turned deep blue and within five minutes, I was hooked up.

I trolled for three and a half hours to hook over twenty tuna and landed seventeen. The Striper also came back with seventeen albacore and all the tuna that day were between eight and twenty-five pounds

8-11-04

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

Lots Of Large Lings

Lingcod over thirty pounds are still coming in to Shelter Cove almost every day.

Last week, several large lings were caught and one was caught twice.

Steve Dale from Anderson California was fishing for lingcod on the “Old Man” when he tied into a large ling. He immediately, marked the spot on his GPS.

Steve and his crew worked the spot for several drifts, catching lots of large vermilion rockfish and occasionally grappling with a large lingcod.

Steve, a bit frustrated from large fish breaking his leaders, put a steel leader on his line and baited it with a small, live black rockfish.

It wasn’t long before Steve was fighting a big ling, which eventually won when Steve’s main line came off of the swivel attached to the steel leader.

Two days later, Steve and friend Randy were working the same spot, fishing with live rockfish and sea trout when they had a double hook up. They brought two big lings all the way up to the boat before the lings let go of the bait and headed to the bottom.

Three more drifts across the same spot with the same, now slightly chewed live bait and boom, two big fish hit both lines again. After several minutes Steve finally lands a thirty-three pound lingcod.

As Randy was taking the sea trout and hooks out of the lings mouth, he noticed something else in it’s mouth, the steel leader that Steve had lost two days earlier with a half digested rockfish still attached.

One day last week, Bob Downing the deck hand on the charter boat Annika, was getting ready to lower a live rockfish in the water for lingcod bait. He noticed a snag in the reel and was attempting to remove it when a large lingcod jumped completely out of the water and grabbed the fish that was dangling off the side of the boat.

Unfortunately, Bob wasn’t able to clear the snag with the big ling tugging on the end of the line and it eventually broke.

In spite on uncommonly warm water near shore, anglers are catching salmon close to the cove. Several salmon are being caught just outside of the moorings at Shelter Cove and just off the point in front of the lighthouse.

The tuna continue to be allusive this year. A couple of very long runs produced only a few tuna out of Shelter Cove last week. It’s been the same story for the boats fishing out of Fort Bragg, often one to three fish per boat.

 

8-5-05

Fishing report by Ken Vallotton owner of  Lost Coast Landing, Boat Launching & Tackle Shop, 1-707-986-1234.

Giant Ling Cod Attack The Lost Coast

With protection from FingG the last of California’s ling cod population had nine months to plan an assault on the unsuspecting anglers fishing out of Shelter Cove.

August 1st, was opening day for rock cod fishing in California’s central rock cod zone that stretches from Shelter Cove to Santa Barbara and the battle has been raging ever since.

Now that the limit for lings is one, at least thirty inches long, it’s primarily the female lingcod that have to take the blows for their clan, while the males continue to enjoy the safety of government protection.

Keith Komure from Sacramento was the first to bring in a ling thirty pounds or larger.

Soon after that, Rick Vicrrey from Folsom Ca. brought in a thirty-five pound ling that he noticed using the cover of the whistle buoy to sneak up on Point Delgada.

Every day now, there is at least one lingcod over thirty pounds brought in and most anglers are coming in with their one over thirty inches.

Considering there are only a few of these lingcod left in the world, it’s extremely heartening to see how bravely they are waging what could be their last battle.

Another nice Pacific halibut came in last week. Charlie Hull was fishing on the charter boat Bite Me when he caught a 40 lb pacific.

The salmon bite is slow but there are a few decent ones coming in each day.

Lots of California halibut up to twenty pounds are being caught along the beaches now.